Thursday, January 29, 2009

Sweets from the Past


Today I had breakfast (which turned into lunch) with my sister. As a "birthday gift" she gave me a package of Circus Peanuts because she remembered that I liked them as a kid. I guess my husband liked them too since we ended up splitting the package. I was amused at how memories rushed at me with just one bite of a sugar-y peanut-shaped marshmallow.


One summer Kim and I stayed with good family friends in Minnesota while our parents were moving us from Sioux City to Charles City. We were 9 and 11 years old. This family owned the only grocery store and every day we were allowed to walk down to say "Hi" to Schmitty and to spend a little of our money at the candy sections. The store also boasted a pop machine from which you pulled your bottle out of a column of sodas. Grape was an especial favorite.





I remember those candies: Pixy Sticks, wax lips, Bottle Caps, Bazooka Bubble Gum, candy necklaces, salt water taffy, red hots, root beer barrels, etc. We could walk to the store with a quarter in our pockets and bring back the change.






It's amazing how tastes and flavors can trigger memories. I can't remember ever taking time to think of these vintage candies. Yet now a number of pleasant scenes from childhood remind me what great fun it was to be a kid and to have just a bit of candy in my pocket.


For anyone with a hankering for a particular old-fashioned treat, I found a website which sells many of the candies you ate as a kids. It even seperates the candies by decades.






What candy do you remember?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember walking to Kalens in Sioux City and buying those ghastly red wax lips and chewing them up and reshaping them. I also remember pouring pixie stix down my throat at Schmitty's and almost choking from getting the sour powder in my lungs.

Kristen P said...

Hey, Tam. I'm taking a nostalgia trip through your blog. (Scoopin' the Loop, the old music, the candy...)

I remember walking to the Little store (we accented the word "little" for some weird, upstate NY reason). I would by a sour apple Charm sucker for 5 cents. I could make it last for a looooong time. (I just realized there is no cents sign on my keyboard. Wonder how long it's been gone...)

Recently, I told my fourth graders about the "penny candy" aisles there used to be in Ben Franklins and drug stores. They couldn't imagine. Sigh. Feeling a little old today.

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